JANE VARDA

oil painting • pastel

My path to becoming an artist began early, probably rendering pencil drawings anywhere I could, particularly pictures of horses and ballerinas. I marched ahead to a Fine Arts BA-majoring with honors in art history; an Art Education degree; teaching in England and WI; back to school for a Commercial Art degree, and years of working as a designer and art director for educational publishing companies. Seminars, workshops, classes, dedicated instructors, and a lifetime of visiting art collections in European and America all nurtured an unequivocal imperative to understand art and visual literacy, and in the process advance my own painting skills.

In addition to painting landscape outside, I work in my Town of Berry studio from photo-references and sketches, primarily in either oils or pastels. I also like painting still-life, choosing ordinary objects that relate to my daily world, but which transcend convention to become idiosyncratic in paint.

DEMONSTRATION: I will be painting with either oils or pastel each day of the tour.

STUDIO ACCESS: The house and studio are built atop a hill overlooking Spring Valley Road. An initially steep gravel driveway (.3 mile) winds up to a flat area with ample parking space along the drive and also right up by the north-facing, studio entrance. The front entrance is accessed by a 16-step, including a half-landing, exterior stone staircase.